36 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Populus balsamifera, L. 

 BALSAM. POPLAR. BALM OF GILEAB. 



Habitat and Range. Alluvial soils ; river banks, valleys, 

 borders of swamps, woods. 



Newfoundland and Nova Scotia west to Manitoba; northward to the 

 coast of Alaska and along the Mackenzie river to the Arctic circle. 



Maine, common ; New Hampshire, Connecticut river 

 valley, generally near the river, becoming more plentiful 

 northward ; Vermont, frequent ; Massachusetts and Ehode 

 Island, not reported ; Connecticut, extending along the 

 Housatonic river at New Milford for five or six miles, perhaps 

 derived from an introduced tree (C. K. Averill, Rhodora, 

 II, 35). 



West through northern New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Dakota 

 (Black Hills), Montana, beyond the Rockies to the Pacific coast. 



Habit. A medium-sized tree, 30-75 feet high, trunk 1-3 

 feet in diameter, straight ; branches horizontal or nearly so, 

 slender for size of tree, short ; head open, narrow-oblong or 

 oblong-conical ; branchlets mostly terete ; foliage thin. 



Bark. In old trees dark gray or ash-gray, firm-ridged, in 

 young trees smooth ; branchlets grayish ; season's shoots red- 

 dish or greenish brown, sparsely orange-dotted. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds f inch long, appressed or 

 slightly divergent, conical, slender, acute, resin-coated, sticky, 

 fragrant when opening. Leaves 3-6 inches long, about one- 

 half as wide, yellowish when young, when mature bright green, 

 whitish below ; outline ovate-lanceolate or ovate, finely toothed, 

 gradually tapering to an acute or acuminate apex ; base obtuse 

 to rounded, sometimes truncate or heart-shaped; leafstalk 

 much shorter than the blade, terete or nearly so ; stipules 

 soon falling. The leaves of var. intermedia are obovate to 

 oval ; those of var. latifolia closely approach the leaves of 

 P. candicans. 



Inflorescence. April. Sterile 3-4 inches long, fertile at first 

 about the same length, gradually elongating, loosely flowered ; 



